This song is specifically about all those cities named throughout: Kankakee, Evansville, Parker City, all the beaten down rustbelt towns across Illinois that have become forgotten (as the lyrics state). Eventually they will be resurrected. Its very similar in theme (though obviously not style) to his song about the unemployed in Ypsilante from Michigan. Its a very powerful song, and one of my favorites, since it functions on three levels (the superficial zombie level-which is fun, the rustbelt level, and the Christian resurrection level).

by Colin B. on 11-22-2006 @ 03:38:59 AM
My god. Talk about pretentious song titles. Does Sufjan thrive on this?

Honestly, this song is shit. Much like many of Sufjan's. Flame me all you want but it is true. Pitchforkers praise Sufjan like he is some indie god. Truth be told, his lyrics are mediocre. The guy goes to a library and then recites his notes with a melody. It is hilarious.

Sometimes, I feel like he wants to be Elliott Smith. Well, that isn't going to happen. Elliott wrote how he felt, Sufjan just mimics the feelings. Better luck next time!


You'll find that many people admire sufjan stevens because he puts so much emotion into his songs and he also writes quite explicitly about events that have happened to him, listen to songs like romulus and oh god where are you now - he seems to be drawing from his own experiences and emotions.
and i find your comment more pretentious than anything he ever wrote...

Colin B. if you don't like the song, don't bother commenting. I'm sure it'd benefit you and us.
And generally everyone.

Cheers.

people can say they dont like this song if they want. it's no less valid a comment than people saying they do like the song, and just as worthless a comment either way.

Could the fact that Logan, Grant and Reagan were Democrats at one point in time but switched to the republican party be significant at all? Perhaps it relates to how the towns changed their names and identity?

This song means one thing and one thing only: Sufjan Stevens is a genius - with a musical sense of humor (OK, well that's two things)

I agree with schnayel, the I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S! bit is very, very cool - and its underlying vamp line equally hip.

QUESTION: a string section plays a phrase, on top of the guitar vamp prior to any vocals (continuing to play this line whenever the vamp is repeated). This line sounds eerily like the string section from a particular 1970's hit - one you'd hear on a classic rock station, but I just cannot place it. Any ideas what this oldie might be? At first I thought it might be something by ELO, but I don't think so.

Its so catchy! I really love the I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S bit. I'll never spell Illinois wrong again! Not that I ever have any use of the word, but still!

I may be wrong...
but this song seems to talk about burried and forgotten nations, "awaken by the axe"... nations which leave nothing else but states' names (Illinois) or city's names (Shawneetown, Kankakee I suppose),...
It could be about natives, couldn't it?

i believe this song is about the black mans struggle against the all powerful white man. or communism....maybe george bush

damn. this piece is just so fucking musical. i cant put it any other way.

Every town mentioned except Magnolia and Old Metropolis is listed as a ghost town on this site. But Magnolia is a small town, and i'm guessing Old Metropolis doesn't exsist anymore becasue I can't find anything on it. http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/il/il.html

Oh, and Kankakee is Kankakee City

i guess that song is about not being forgotten after death...and he sings
"Horace!"
horace was a roman poet and he wrote a poem "exegi monumentum" which tells us how the memory of him will live in his poems and that he will never be forgotten because of them etc. i guess that's why his name appears in the song.

I think this song is about the downfall of the U.S

best song title ever, yo.

Horace is a ghost town

In response so colin b's post...

sufjan's lyrics are not mediocre; they're just different. he's trying to capture the essence of a state and the people who live in it. in many songs, sufjan does write about his own feelings as well. he just uses characters to portray them in his state themed albums or makes it obvious on albums like seven swans. if you ask me, elliott smith's lyrics are mediocre. instead of writing about the same old drugs/broken heart bullshit, sufjan writes about things that really matter to him, and these things are rarely seen in music, unlike smith. elliott smith really is nothing special. i recommend listening to conor oberst/bright eyes if you wanna listen to the type of stuff smith writes about. he's much better at it. my point is, there's no way in hell that sufjan is trying to be elliott smith. the music and lyrics are completely different. sufjan is the first of his kind and has yet to be imitated because of his originality. can you say the same for elliott smith? i sure can't.

I have an interesting interpretation of this song. I feel that it is connected with the three songs after it (“Let’s hear that string part again…”, “and In This Temple, As in the Hearts of Man, for Whom He Saved the Earth”, and "The Seer's Tower) If you listen to the whole CD, the music is connected from Zombies, all the way to The Seer’s Tower. Therefore, if the music is connected, can’t the lyrics/meaning be connected?


The first connection I see is between “They are Night Zombies…” and “The Seer’s Tower”.

“In the powers of the earth, we wait until it rails and rails” – Seer’s
“Waking the earth, it lifts and lags” –Zombies
“Oh, my mother, she betrayed us, but my father loved and bathed us” – Seer’s

Definition of rails: “To express objections or criticisms in bitter, harsh, or abusive language.”
Definition of lags: “To arrest.” Or “To send to prison.”

The first line is making the earth (world) out to be mean by saying she is bitter, harsh, and abusive. The second line, I feel, is saying that the earth (world) has judged us and found us guilty. It’s as if he is saying she (the world/judge) is lifting her gavel, and slamming it down to send us to prison. The Bible talks about following the sins of the world (we all do, we were born into it), and how, because of these sins, we are condemned to hell. But the next line gives us hope. It starts off repeating the fact that our mother (the world) has betrayed us by sending us to prison (hell), but ends with the statement that our father (Jesus) loves us. So it’s almost as if Sufjan is telling the whole Story of Jesus dying on the cross to save us from our sins, in these three lines.


The second connection I see deals with the very next lines in both of these songs.

“We see a thousand rooms to rest
Helping us taste the bite of death
I know, I know my time has passed
I'm not so young, I'm not so fast
I tremble with the nervous thought
Of having been, at last, forgot”- Zombies

“Still I go to the deepest grave
Where I go to sleep alone”- Seer’s

Although I’m not a hundred percent sure as to the exact connection between these lines, the only thing I could find was that they both deal with death.



The Third connection I see is between “They are Night Zombies…” and “Let’s Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don’t Think They Hear It All The Way Out in Bushnell”. We see the connection, because the string part he is talking about is taken directly from Zombies. This string part is only played once in Zombies, and the exact lyrics that are being sung, while the strings are being played are these:

“I know, I know my time has passed
I'm not so young, I'm not so fast
I tremble with the nervous thought
Of having been, at last, forgot”

I take, that it is not the strings he actually want us to hear again, but rather what he is saying. It is as if he is saying to us, “I don’t think I said that loud enough, so let me repeat myself, so you can hear me.” As to why he wants us to hear this again, I’m not so clear on. Maybe he is talking about a fear of being forgotten by God once he dies, therefore ending up in Hell.


The fourth connection I see deals again with “The Seer’s Tower”, and “They Are Night Zombies…” This one deals with the word “divide”.

“Hold your tongue and don't divide us
Land of God, you hold and guide us”- Zombies
“He comes dividing man from brothers”- Seer’s

The meaning of the first divide is: “To cause to separate into opposing factions; disunite”
The meaning of the second divide is: “to separate or part from something else; sunder; cut off.”

It’s as if Sufjan wants us to know the difference between the two divides. Also, the Bible talks about the tongue a lot, and how it is very powerful, and can be very evil. James 3:5-9 is one of the most notable examples of this, in the Bible. In “The Seer’s Tower” he talks about God dividing man from brother. Sufjan is essentially talking about how God separates those who love and believe in him, from those who don’t.

If you look close enough, you can also see a connection between the line, “Land of God, you hold and guide us”, and the first connection I talked about. He is asking God to guide us, as opposed to us following the world.


The fifth and final connection that I can see so far, deals with “They Are Night Zombies…”, “In This Temple, As in the Hearts of Man…”, and “The Seer’s Tower. This one you have to use your imagination on, but I think if you look hard enough, you can see the connection. At the end of “The Seer’s Tower”, starting at 3:38, you hear two sets of sounds. The first is a low pitched sort of moan, and the second is a high pitched angelic like singing. I feel that the low moaning sound connects to “They Are Night Zombies…”. It almost sounds as if it is the zombies (dead) moaning. On the other hand, the angelic like singing, is the same type of sound heard in the background throughout “In this Temple As in the Hearts of Man, For Whom He Saved the Earth”.

To me, this is kind of like him saying that in the end you will either end up in one of two places. Heaven (angelic), or Hell (moaning), and that the only way to Heaven is to follow Christ.

This is just what I got out of it; obviously I’m not stating that this is the only meaning in the songs.

I love this song, the only unfortunate thing is that everytime I hear the word "Illinois," all I want to do is follow up with a nice

I.L.L.I.N.O.I.S
Ring the bell or call and write us

this would be okay if I didn't live about twenty miles away from the great state and half of my friends (and boyfriend) didn't live there...


oh well...I guess it's just spreading the love of Sufjan

As being from the Buda area, I will agree with Buda being a ghost town, it's about 600 people, which is big for a ghost town, though. There's just not much activity in that area. Period.

Doing research:
"Green Ridge" is no longer a community, but once was. The buildings are no longer existant. The town was near what is Girard today.
Birds, Illinois, was at a population of 51 in 2000.
Parker City was a boom town that no longer has any inhabitants. There are evidence of wells still there? (Not sure about that source) Is not faar from Carbondale.
I also found nothing on McVey, Horace, Lemmon, or Enos, just a random spot on Google Maps.
Reader/"Reeders" is an unincorperated community- which really means it's a small group of houses. I looked up an area near me, and it came up as an "unincorperated community." Not- though a town of about 50 near me (with a post office & zip code-making it at least a village) came up as one, too.

The rest are towns with populations from 128 (Sailor Springs)-25,561(Kankakee).

My assumption is that he was going for the decline of towns in Illinois, and how nobody every remembers the history of the small-town/ghost-town areas. He obviously did a LOT of digging or knew his stuff.

Who the hell is Captain Clitus? The only references I can find are:


1. Clitus was an officer for Alexander the Great. Though he once saved AtG's life, he later ".. said something to offend Alexander the Great. Alexander took a lance and murdered Clitus. From then on, Alexander's followers had to be very wary of what they said."

(from http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/alexanderpeople/g/Clitus.htm)



2. a) an overzealous spaz, or b) diarea of the mouth

(from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=clitus)



Actually, I can see how the urbandictionary definitions derive from the loose mouthed Clitus of AtG's time.

However, I haven't figured out how these definitions fit in with the song's lyrics.

Ideas anyone?